THE DEVELOPMENT OF A HYPERMEDIA TRAINING SYSTEM FOR A WATER-TREATMENTPLANT

The Bureau of Pollution Control for the city of Atlanta, GA is respons ible for four water pollution control plants. A hypermedia training sy stem is being developed that is intended to be used by supervisory, op erational, and maintenance personnel who control the water treatment f acilities at the plants. The primary objective of this research effort is to develop an effective combination of text, figures, photographs, computer animations, and live video connected via hypertext links tha t motivates and communicates with the plant personnel. The methodology used to accomplish this goal is iterative design, which allows consta nt feedback from potential users of the system and emerging technologi es and media to be gradually incorporated into the system. The develop ment of a hypermedia training and reference system presents many probl ems in the successful integration of technology, information, and pers onnel. To support these needs, an audience description was formulated in order to understand the user characteristics. The basis of the info rmation content of the system was obtained from an operations manual d eveloped by plant management. Photographs, figures, and animations hav e been added to augment the text. An implementation schedule featuring iterative design with frequent behavioral evaluations was used to ref ine the content and incorporate appropriate visual aids. Alternative u ser interfaces, one based on the original manual and another based on a flow diagram of the processes at the plant, have been proposed to me et the needs of both inexperienced and experienced employees. The meth odology for implementing the system and experiences in implementing it are discussed. The initial development of a text-based system was dri ven by the results of behavioral-evaluations. Future developments will be based on behavioral evaluations and the use of visual technologies .